Cañaveral de León is a town and
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
located in the
province
A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
of
Huelva
Huelva ( , , ) is a municipality of Spain and the capital of the Huelva (province), province of Huelva, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. Located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula, it sits betwee ...
, Spain. According to the 2005 census, it has a population of 419 inhabitants and covers a 35 km
2 area (12.0 people/km
2). It sits at an altitude of 533 m above sea level, and is 134 km from the capital.
Etymology
Its name comes from its dependence on the Encomienda de León, and probably of the reeds that should exist at the foot of a large spring water that emerges at the center of the village and that has marked Cañaveral, beyond its name and also its shape and its history. In Spanish, ''cañaveral'' means "a place where reeds (''caña)'' grow.
History
Cañaveral de León is part of a group of four sister villages, the three other ones, located in the Badajoz Province (Extremadura), being Calera de León, Segura de León and Fuentes de León. These lands were conquered from the
Moors
The term Moor is an Endonym and exonym, exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslims, Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages.
Moors are not a s ...
in the mid-thirteenth century by the Order of Santiago, All of them once belonged to the Encomienda Mayor de León (Greater Commandery of León), who was in charge of repopulating the area with people from
Castilla y León
Castile, Castille or Castilla may refer to:
Places Spain
* Castile (historical region), a vaguely defined historical region of Spain covering most of Castile and León, all of the Community of Madrid and most of Castilla–La Mancha
* Kingdom o ...
.
The title of ''villa'' was granted to Cañaveral de León by
King Philip II on 30 December 1588, which allowed the village to secede from Fuentes de León. Until 1833, the village was part of the
Badajoz Province
The province of Badajoz ( ; ) is a province of western Spain located in the autonomous community of Extremadura. It was formed in 1833. It is bordered by the provinces of Cáceres in the north, Toledo, Ciudad Real in the east, Córdoba in ...
. in the next years, Cañaveral de León had a big dispute with the neighbouring village of
Hinojales for the ownership of the area known as Umbría de Hinojales; Hinojales eventually won the case in court and Cañaveral de León lost some 4,500 ha of land.
Demographics
See also
*
List of municipalities in Huelva
Province of Huelva, Huelva is a provinces of Spain, province in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain, which is divided into 79 Municipalities of Spain, municipalities. Spanish census, Huelva is the Ran ...
References
External links
Cañaveral de León.Town local government web.
- Sistema de Información Multiterritorial de Andalucía
Cañaveral Web- Web No Official de Cañaveral de Leon
Municipalities in the Province of Huelva
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